Printing machines



F. OISCROFT PRINTING MACHINES 2 heets-Sheet 1 Filed Feb. 6, 195

Inventor FFfl/VK OSCE By W A orney y 1957 I F. OSCROFT 2,799,220

PRINTING MACHINES v Filed. Feb. 6, 1-956 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 A ttorneys United States Patent PRINTING MACHENES West Bridgford, Nottingham, England,

assignor to D. land Application February 6,.1956,- Serial No. 563,769

Claims priority, application Great Britain February 18, 1955 2 Claims. (Cl. 101-37) This invention relates to improvements in printing machines and is particularly concerned with machines for printing round or circular sectioned articles. v

The invention is applicable to the printing of articles such as ampoules for containing liquid serums, phials for containing drugs, condensers, pencils and other round section articles on which i is necessary or desirable to have printing on the outer surface thereof.

Attempts to print such articles have not been entirely successful in that a print with clearly defined lines has not been obtained and the printing of small letters has therefore not been practicable.

It is one object of the present invention to provide improvements in printing machines of the aforementioned kind whereby clearly defined print is achieved and with this object in view the invention provides ,a machine for printing round section articles comprising a supply container for said articles, means for supporting the articles successively at a printing location in a rotatable manner upon rollers, means whereby the articles are transferred successively from said container to the printing location, and means forrotary printing each article at a position above the rollers while it is on the rollers at the printing location.

The printing is preferably effected by offset printing means and the combination of such means known per se with a machine for printing round articles is an important feature of the invention. We have found that the use of offset printing means enables unexpectedly sharply defined printing to be obtained and maintained for long periods. so as to eifect inking twice for each printing operation. Preferably the supply container comprises a nozzle shaped hopper such that the articles descend the hopper by gravi y and merge from the hopp ne a a i Means such as, for example, a slide may be provided adjacent the l wer end of he banner t pe mit nly n articl .to emerge from the hopper at a time. The hopper may be arranged such that the articles fall on to two freely mounted rollers spaced apart from each other, the spacing of the rollers being such that the article cannot pass between the rollers. The article in this printing location may then be placed adjacent printing means such as, for example, a blanket having the desired printed matter inked thereon and forming part of the offset printing means. The blanket may be arranged in an arc of a circle such that as the blanket moves in said are it rotates the article mounted on the rollers and at the same time transfers the inked printed matter to the article. Means may be provided for separating the rollers such that the article passes between them with the printed matter thereon and on to a conveyor belt or other means provided immediately below the rollers for carrying the article to a drying location or for other after printing processes as are necessary.

In order that the invention may be more readily understood reference will now be made to the drawing accompanying the provisional specification and in which:

The offset printing means is preferably operated I Patented July 16, 1957 Figure 1 is a diagrammatic side elevation of a printing machine according .to the present invention with an article being printed;

Figure 2 is a view similar to Figure 1 but showing the condition immediately after printing of an article;

Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 1 but showing an article being fed to the printing location; and

Figure 4 is a plan view of certain parts corresponding to Figure 1 but showing certain additional minor mechanical features.

In the figures the supply hopper in the form of an inclined nozzle 1 contains a plurality of articles 2 of round section which are to be printed. The printing device comprises a rotary block 3 having a part 40 of its surface shaped to the segment of a circle which meets a printing cylinder 5. Stretched over the part 40 is a printing blanket 4 of a flexible material such as, for example, rubber. This blanket is engaged at each of its opposite edges in a clamp 41 held in a recess 43 by a plate 42. Ink is fed by a duct 9 through a plurality of inking rollers 8 to a main inking roller 7 which by intermediate inking rollers 6 feeds the printing cylinder 5 which is a plate having the printed matter formed thereon. The print is provided on the cylinder 5 by one or more segments secured to the cylinder. The print is formed on the segments by photographic methods and by etching or other suitable means for leaving the printed matter in raised form. Suitable material for the cylinder 5 is Phosphorbronze. The raised printed matter on the cylinder 5 is inked and this transfers an inked impression of the printed matter to the blanket 4. The articles 2 are supported at a printing location by a pair of rollers 28 on one side and a pair of rollers 29v on the other side; The rollers 28, 29 are respectively mounted on ball bearings (notshown) carried by collars 48, 49 mounted on spindles 30, 31. The collars with the rollers are adjustable along the spindles so that the rollers engage the articles on opposite sides of the part to be printed. The collars are fixed in the adjusted positions by grub screws 50, 51. Preferably the blanket is doubly inked, that is two inked impressions are applied to the blanket before printing, this being accomplished by rotating the parts .3, 5 twice for each print ing operation.

Each of the spindles 30 and 31 is carried at its ends in arms 53, 54 of a bracket 55. The arms 53, 54 con-' tain springs 56, 57 whereby the spindles are biased such that any undue pressure applied to the article 2 while in the printing location would not damage the article but is accommodated by movement of the rollers 28 and 29. This is particularly desirable if the articles to be printed are of fragile naturesuch as for example glass.

The arms 53 are carried on slide members 21 and 23 which are arranged to slide in a guide 22. carried on a part 18 of the printing machine so that the spindles overhang from the guide 22. An operating rod 20 is pivotally connected to the member 21 and a check rod 17 is connected to the member 23 and carries a knurled stop nut 19 engageable with the part 18 to limit the movement of the member 23 in one direction (to the left in the drawings).

A rod 24 rigidly connected to the member 21 carries a screw threaded locknut 26 between the members 21 and 23, and serves as a stop to limit the extent of relative approach of the members 21, 23 and rollers 29, 28. A coil spring 25 at one end (right hand end in the fig ures) abuts against a stop 122 on the rod 24. The other end of the coil spring abuts against the interior surface of the member 23 such that the member 23 is biased towards the member 21 by this coil spring 25.

An L-shaped stop 27 is slidably mounted on the upper surface of the member 23 and is arranged to abut a screw threaded stop 12 connected to a slide plate 11 carried on a bush slidably mounted on a rod 13 which is secured to the lower end of the nozzle 1. A coil spring 32 is arranged to abut one end of the bush 10, the other end of which coil spring is arranged to abut an adjustable knurled nut 14 carried at the end of the rod 13.

An endless hollowed conveyor band 16 running around a pulley 15 is located below the gap between the members 21 and 23. In Figure 1 an article 2 is freely supported on the rollers 28 and 29 and the blanket 4 is shown transferring the inked printed matter to said article. After the blanket has transferred all the printing matter to the article the operating rod is actuated by a cam or other suitable means to move the member 21 to the left away from the member 23 so as to enlarge the gap between the rollers 28 and 29 thus permitting the article to drop on to the conveyor band 16 as shown in Figure 2. The articles may then be carried by the conveyor band to a drying chamber or to other necessary after-printing treatment. Conveniently the conveyor pulley 15 is hollowed in the centre so that the wet ink impression of the matter printed on the article will not be smudged as it falls on to and is conveyed by the conveyor band.

The operating rod 20 is then moved to the right and moves the members 21 and 23 to the positions as shown in Figure 3 in which the spring 13 has been compressed and the stop 27 has engaged the screw 12 and moved it to displace the slide 11 from under the end of the nozzle 1 thereby permitting another article to descend from the nozzle on to the rollers 28 and 29. The operating rod 20 then returns the member 21 to the position shown in Figure l, and the spring 25 moves the member 23 also back to the Figure 1 position.

It will be appreciated that numerous adjustments may be necessary for the printing of different size and shape of articles. The length of blanket having printed matter thereon is governed by the circumference of the article to be printed and means are provided for adjusting the length of printing blanket available. The gap between the rollers 28 and 29 may be adjusted by alteration of the screw locknut 26 on a screw thread provided on the rod 24 such that the distance to which the members 21 and 23 approach may be varied, that is to say the size of the gap between the rollers 28 and 29 may be varied. Alteration of this distance may necessitate alteration of the position of the member 23 when in the printing position and this may be obtained by adjustment of the nut 19. Adjusting means are also provided in the length of the rod 20 between the member 21 and operating cams therefore so that by mutual adjustment of the length of rod 20 and the locknuts 19 the printing location may be varied. The extent to which the slide 11 is moved to permit an article to descend from the nozzle is governed by adjustment of the screw 12. Conveniently the stop 27 is slidably carried on the member 23 so that if it is desired to prevent feeding of subsequent articles on to the printing position the slide may be moved out of position and the machine run without operation of the slide. Means may also be provided for movement of the lower end of the hopper in accordance with adjustment of the printing location or the gap between the rollers 28 and 29.

It will be appreciated that the present invention pro vides a machine which enables round or circular sectioned articles to be printed by a continuous process and furthermore the invention provides numerous adjustments for the printing of articles of different diameter and for variation of the article which is printed.

I claim:

1. A printing machine for printing on round section articles comprising a pair of slide members, rollers carried by the slide members for supporting the articles successively in a rotatable manner at a printing location, a supply container for said articles, means whereby said articles are transferred successively from said container to the printing location, means for rotary printing each article at a position above the rollers while it is on the rollers at the printing location, actuating means to reciprocate the first of said slide members, stop means to limit the relative approach of said slide members towards each other, stop means for limiting the movement of the second slide member in the direction of the first member so that the latter can move in one direction away from the second member to permit the articles to fall between said rollers after printing, resilient means for urging said second slide member towards the printing location, and control means for controlling the transference of articles successively from said means for transferring the articles, said control means being actuated by the second slide member when the latter moves in the direction opposite to the aforesaid direction under the action of said actuating means, first slide member and stop means.

2. A printing machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said slide members are moved to bring the rollers into proximity with the open end of the means for transferring the articles in order to receive an article, then to the printing location, whereafter the first slide member moves to separate its roller from that on the other slide member.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 879,849 Biette Feb. 25, 1908 1,167,004 Magna Jan. 4, 1916 1,586,310 Johnson May 25, 1926 2,183,230 Treece et al. Dec. 12, 1939 2,331,991 McElwain Oct. 19, 1943 2,703,047 Scherer et al. Mar. 1, 1955 2,756,670 Harmon July 31, 1956 

